Why Replacing Batt Will Be Very Difficult for Michigan State

Michigan State will be hard-pressed to do better than J Batt as athletic director.

Batt is currently finalizing a deal for the same position with Kentucky and will be leaving MSU. The fundraising guru landed a $401 million donation, hired Pat Fitzgerald, and also announced "For Sparta" and Spartan Ventures during his year on the job. Replacing Batt will be a long road.

Interim Plans

MSU Athletic Director J Batt speaks during an event announcing the $401 million donation to Michigan State University from Greg and Dawn Williams on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. | Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Jon Palumbo is the current interim AD, a source has told Spartan Nation. This may not be a 100% firm thing, though. He and Batt are close. Palumbo was the interim AD at Georgia Tech briefly after Batt took the Michigan State job, but he followed Batt to East Lansing anyway.

Tom Izzo and Deputy AD Jennifer Smith shared interim duties after Alan Haller was fired last year. If Palumbo's days at MSU are numbered, too, Smith stepping in again would make a lot of sense. Izzo may not be too pleased to be asked to take on additional responsibility again, but it may be necessary to continue projecting strength or unity.

Presidential Gap

MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz, pictured Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, during the Board of Trustees meeting. | Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Whether it's Palumbo or someone else, whoever is in the chair will perhaps be in there for some time. Michigan State's priority will be to find a president before it finds an athletic director. Those processes are quite thorough and take months and months.

It's just tough to see an athletic director taking a job with MSU when there isn't a permanent president to report to. People in high-stakes jobs like that want to be sure that they and their bosses share a vision. It would be sort of like hiring a head coach without an athletic director --- that's just not the chain of command.

Lack of Stability

The not-so-amicable exit of Guskiewicz isn't going to help things. He called his relationship with the Michigan State Board of Trustees an "unsustainable situation."

MSU's next athletic director will be the Spartans' fourth permanent AD since Bill Beekman took the job in July 2018 following Mark Hollis' retirement. The next president will be the school's third since Lou Anna K. Simon stepped down in January 2018.

J Batt, Kevin Guskiewicz — Michigan State athletic director J Batt, left, and president Kevin M. Guskiewicz watch senior day after the game between Michigan State and Rutgers at Breslin Center in East Lansing on Thursday, March 5, 2026. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

These just aren't positions that are supposed to change every two or three years. Michigan State's answers at president and AD need to be long-term solutions.

That's much easier said than done, though. Guskiewicz's fallout with the Board of Trustees is going to make candidates wary. Perhaps MSU has to go further down on the list than it would like. That isn't going to have a positive impact on the parties who may be interested in becoming athletic directors.

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